independent authors

More Authors Take The Initiative in Book Marketing

According to the firm Author Marketing Ideas, the myth of the publisher as marketer is declining, as a growing number of authors realize that marketing their books is part of their job. Whether they are working with traditional publishing houses or self-publishing, more authors are taking the initiative to market their own books. 

AMIBookMarketing

The trend includes well known writers, such as Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and author David Mamet who decided to self-publish his new book. He told The New York Times earlier this year, “Publishing is like Hollywood — nobody ever does the marketing they promise.” So of his new book he says, “I am going to promote the hell out of it, even though I’ll probably make my own mistakes.”

Award winning children’s author Sherrill S. Cannon say that “Writing ‘The End’ is just the beginning for me as an author; once my book is written, I move into sales mode.” Cannon has written five successful children’s books and relies on social media to connect with fans and boost sales. “My publisher Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency and their sister company Author Marketing Ideas have helped me tremendously and given a huge boost through services such as video book trailers and press releases. But as an author my job is also to be proactive. I blog and guest blog as well as enter contests and submit my books for reviews.”

“Authors such as Sherrill Cannon are what we see more and more as the new normal,” says Ellen Green, Vice President of Author Marketing Ideas. In addition to offering traditional book-marketing services, AMI also hosts educational webinars for authors who want to market their books on their own. To educate and empower every author, AMI also has a “Free Tips” page on their website.

If statistics about the rise of self-publishing are accurate, there’s a whole lot of book-marketing going on. According to the book data company Bowker, the number of self-published titles increased 59 percent last year, topping 391,000 books, The authors of each of these books is engaged in some form of self-marketing. 

LINKS

Author Marketing Ideas

 

Writer’s Digest Publishes 2014 Guide to Self-Publishing

2014-guide-to-self-publishingWRITERS. Because new resources for self-published authors continue to be introduced, many books about self-publishing are outdated soon after they are published. To correct this problem, Writer’s Digest has introduced a “Guide to Self-Publishing” that will be updated yearly, much like the company’s popular “Writer’s Market,” and “Poet’s Market” books.

In fact, “The 2014 Guide to Self-Publishing” by Robert Lee Brewer  is the first new market book Writer’s Digest has published since they published the 2008 Screenwriter’s Market in 2007.

Whether you plan to publish a print or digital-only version of your book, “The 2014 Guide to Self-Publishing” can help you find the most cost-effective, efficient ways to get the job done. You will learn how to evaluate the indie publishing landscape, create your own marketing plan, and design professional-looking books, The book also includes insights from successful self-published authors.

The 2014 Guide to Self-Publishing lists hundreds of publishing companies, freelance editors, freelance designers, conferences and organizations for networking, and other resources that can help you succeed. The listings include contact information, rates, services, and specialties.

The pay rate chart can help you negotiate with any freelancers you hire to help you with editing, design, or promotion.

LINK

2014 Guide to Self-Publishing

Writer’s Digest Shop: 2014 Guide to Self-Publishing

 

Kobo Writing Life Platform Streamlines Self-Publishing Process

KoboLogoWRITERS.To avoid the extra step of converting your manuscript from a Word or RTF document into an ePub file, you can now create and edit your book directly within the Kobo Writing Life self-publishing platform. Kobo’s WYSIWYG text editor helps ensure that the layout and formatting of the file will accurately translate the way you intend. If you do need to tweak or update ePub file that is automatically created from your text, you can do so without conversion tools and additional editing software.

“We built Kobo Writing Life by listening to what authors need and want in a self-publishing tool, and we continue to introduce improvements and updates based on their feedback,” said Mark Lefebvre, Kobo’s Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations. “Kobo is the only international eReading company to offer authors an open self-publishing service that is author-centric. We help them connect with a global community of readers by making it as easy as possible to create, edit, and publish their work.”

At no cost to the author, Kobo Writing Life titles are published using an intuitive self-service portal. The submission process takes mere minutes, with books published within 24 to 72 hours.

Authors receive royalties of 70 percent on e-books priced between $1.99 and $12.99 and 45 percent for items priced lower or higher than that range.

To help promote and market your work, you can set your book price to “free” at any time without restrictive exclusivity agreements or hidden transaction or download processing fees.

The Kobo Writing Life portal is currently available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Dutch.

Since Kobo launched the self-publishing platform a year ago, more than 17,600 authors have used KWL to publish more than 100,000 titles. The e-books are available in 184 countries and 54 languages. Kobo Writing Life titles represent more than 10 percent of the company’s unit sales.

Kobo Inc. is one of the world’s fastest-growing eReading services. It offers more than 3.5 million e-books, magazines, and newspapers to millions of customers in 190 countries.

Kobo’s family of e-readers includes the Kobo Touch, Kobo Mini, Kobo Glo, Kobo Aura HD, and Kobo Arc. Kobe offers free e-reading applications for Apple®, BlackBerry®, Android®, and Windows® products.

LINKS

About Kobo

Kobo Writing Life

 

Outskirts Press Offers Flat-Fee Self-Publishing Package for Fiction Writers

OutskirtsPressIf you have finished writing your novel — and can’t wait to see it as a published book — you might be interested in the new One-Click Fiction publishing package from Outskirts Press. For a flat, upfront fee of $3,779, you will get a start-to-finish range of consulting, design, formatting, publishing, printing, and marketing services. The services included in the One-Click Fiction publishing package are available a la carte, but you can save money by purchasing the services in the One-Click bundle.

Here are just a few of the services included in the One- Click Fiction package:

  • Dedicated team of service providers, including a Publishing Consultant, Author Representative, Book Designer, and Personal Marketing Assistant
  • Professional copy editing and cover scribing (writing copy for the back cover)
  • Custom designed book cover and interior
  • Paperback edition
  • Official copyright registration, Library of Congress number, barcode and private label ISBN
  • Electronic, digital and mobile editions, including Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook editions
  • Press release distribution
  • Unlimited distribution on demand to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s Book-A-Million and scores of the world’s top booksellers!

Outskirts Press offers self-publishing and book marketing services for writers and professionals who want a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books while retaining 100% of their rights, 100% of their profits, and 100% of the creative control.

Outskirts Press introduced their “One-Click” service in 2012 with a One-Click Publishing package for speakers wanted to build their credibility through authorship. Outskirts Press later expanded the service to authors of children’s books. That bundle includes full-color custom illustrations. Now fiction writers with a ready manuscript can benefit from substantial cost savings on full-service support.

LINKS

Outskirts Press

Outskirts Press: One-Click Publishing for Fiction

AMI Launches Book Review Show on YouTube

“READ THIS! The Book Review Show” is a new web-based show during which host Patrick Morgan reviews books, interviews authors, and presents reports from book expos around the world. The show is produced by Author Marketing Ideas (AMI), an online marketing company for publishers and authors.

READ THIS! made its debut on its YouTube Channel, the AMI website, and other social media venues and is designed to appeal to the millions of people who watch online videos.

Using the morning talk show model, Read This! helps make book buyers aware of new releases. Each review is a comprehensive look at the book, emphasizing genre and market appeal.

AMI President Kait Neese says, “Author Marketing Ideas was created to find new ways to help authors market their work. There is no show like Read This! and AMI is proud to lead the way.”

LINKS

You Tube: READ THIS!

Author Marketing Ideas

 

Word Templates Help Indie Authors Avoid Book Composition Errors

WRITERS. A new website, BookDesignTemplates.com, offers a selection of Microsoft Word templates for creating beautifully designed, industry-standard book designs. The templates can help you avoid rookie mistakes in formatting books for self-publishing.

The templates were created by book designer Joel Friedlander and independent author Tracy R. Atkins to help authors avoid common mistakes such as misplaced page numbers and running heads, no hyphenation, and inconsistent formatting.

“D-I-Y authors might think that their readers don’t care about such things, but think about all of the book professionals who might have something to say about your book,” says Friedlander. “I’m thinking of book buyers, reviewers, distributors, journalists, media bookers, and all the other people you may need for your promotion plans. They’ll see these kinds of errors right away.”

BookDesignTemplates

Some of the templates on the new website are well suited for fiction and memoirs. Other templates are meant for more complex non-fiction books that might include footnotes, tables, bullet points, and diagrams.. The site offers templates for books that will be printed in hard-copy form by print-on-demand services as well as specialized templates for e-book publishing.

With the template, you simply strip out the sample text that comes with the file, and replace it with your own manuscript.

Each template design is a fully formatted Word file with “master” pages for your text, chapter openers, title page, copyright page, and other front matter pages. In addition, you get a “Book Construction Blueprint” that tells you how the parts of a book go together, and the “Template Formatting Guide” to show you how to use the template. Also included are the fonts needed for the template, ready to install on your system, and access to a tutorial library that shows how to put your book together.

Three types of licensing are available, depending on whether you want to use the template for a single book, for multiple books, or to help multiple authors get their books ready to print.

For more information on book design and self-publishing, check out Joel’s blog, The Book Designer or online course The Self-Publishing Roadmap..

LINKS

BookDesignTemplates.com

The Book Designer

The Self-Publishing Roadmap

White Paper Explains Four Paths to Publishing

ASIFourPathsCoverWRITERS. In a white paper, Keith Ogorek of Author Solutions Inc. contends that four clear paths now exist for authors who want to get published. Thanks to advances such as desktop publishing, print-on-demand technology, and Internet distribution, authors can choose  from these four options:

  • Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Publishing
  • General Contractor
  • Publishing Package
  • Traditional (Legacy) Publishing

Choosing the path that’s right for you requires understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.  

For example, Ogorek notes that authors who choose the low-cost DIY route should still expect to spend some money–either for design, editing, or publicity.

The General Contractor publishing path involves hiring and coordinating the work of specialists, such as editors, book designers, and publicists.

Publishing Packages offer a one-stop  source of help with design, conversion, distribution, and publicity. You will know from the start how much the services cost, and have a single number to call when you have questions or concerns.

Traditional Publishing requires you to find an agent to represent you and sacrifice some control over the finished product and how quickly it gets to market.

Even though these choices can be confusing, Ogorek still believes, “Now is the best time in history to be an author.” He reminds us that “Not that long ago, very few people could get published. Now, everyone can get published if they pursue on the the four paths.”

Of course, not every published author will succeed, but with these new publishing options, “Everybody has the opportunity to be successful.”

Self-Publishing Panel at Book Expo America 2013

At Book Expo America 2013 in New York, Keith Ogorek will be joining other publishing experts for a panel discussion entitled “Self Publishing: Disrupter or Defender of the Book Business?” The other panelists are: James McQuivey, author of “Digital Disruption”; Christopher Kenneally of the Copyright Clearance Center; and Angela James of Carina Press.

The group will discuss the disruptive effects that the growth of self-publishing will have on traditional industry players and some factors that drive established trade/literary authors to various start-up players in e-book publishing. The panel discussion is scheduled for 2 pm on Friday, May 31.

Book America Expo (BEA) is North America’s largest gathering of book trade professionals.It is organized with the support of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the American Booksellers Association (ABA). The 2013 event will take place May 30-June 1 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.

About Author Solutions

Author Solutions is a member of the Penguin Group and a leader in indie book publishing. ASI’s self-publishing imprints (AuthorHouse, AuthorHouse UK, iUniverse, Palibrio, Trafford Publishing, and Xlibris) have helped more than 170,000 authors bring more than 200,000 new titles to market.

LINKS

Book Expo America 2013

Author Solutions

White Paper: Four Paths to Publishing